Diagnose economy inflation
Snapshot
~85 sec
Inflation is not a single mistake. It is what happens when small source-rate increases go unchecked across many weeks while the sink side never catches up, until the currency stops feeling like it buys anything.
You will learn
- Trace how several small, individually reasonable source additions combine into an inflation trend.
- Read the two false fixes that hide inflation instead of correcting it.
- Diagnose an inflated economy by its late-stage symptoms, not by a single week's numbers.
Target outcome
You can look at an economy's history and state whether it is genuinely balanced or quietly inflating, and name which false fix to avoid.
Visual walkthrough
Visual walkthrough
~6 min
Four terms for reading an inflation trend
Inflation
A sustained rise in the combined source rate relative to the sink rate, compounding across many weeks rather than one.
Source creep
Small, individually reasonable source additions that combine into a much larger rate increase than any one of them alone.
Price patch
Raising a displayed cost without changing the underlying sink rate; a false fix that hides inflation instead of correcting it.
Currency purge
Resetting player balances outright; a false fix that erases the symptom without correcting the rates that caused it.
Three safe-looking sources, one flooded pool
Read top to bottom. Week 1 adds an event bonus, week 6 a daily bonus, month 4 a mode reward - each reviewed alone. Only the bottom comparison against the unchanged sink makes the quarter-end flood visible.
Source creep over a quarter
Week 1 · Event bonus
A limited-time source. Reviewed alone against the original sink, it looked small and safe.
Week 6 · Daily bonus
A recurring retention source. Reviewed the same way: alone, not against the event already running.
Month 4 · Mode reward
A third source shipped with a new mode. Still checked alone against launch sink rates.
What reviewers never summed
Combined source rate
The sum of all three additions, read together rather than separately.
Never-revisited sink
Unchanged sink rate
The original sink rate, never revisited as sources were added.
- Week 1 · Event bonusCombined source rateadds to
- Week 6 · Daily bonusCombined source rateadds to
- Month 4 · Mode rewardCombined source rateadds to
- Combined source rateUnchanged sink rateis compared against
Read top to bottom. Week 1 adds an event bonus, week 6 a daily bonus, month 4 a mode reward - each reviewed alone. Only the bottom comparison against the unchanged sink makes the quarter-end flood visible. Reading order
- Week 1 · Event bonus
A limited-time source. Reviewed alone against the original sink, it looked small and safe.
- Week 6 · Daily bonus
A recurring retention source. Reviewed the same way: alone, not against the event already running.
- Month 4 · Mode reward
A third source shipped with a new mode. Still checked alone against launch sink rates.
- Combined source rate
The sum of all three additions, read together rather than separately.
- Unchanged sink rate
The original sink rate, never revisited as sources were added.
Connection explanations
- Week 1 · Event bonus → Combined source rate (adds to)
On its own, a limited-time event bonus looked small next to the sink rate at the time.
- Week 6 · Daily bonus → Combined source rate (adds to)
The daily bonus was reviewed later, again only against the original sink rate, not against the event bonus already running.
- Month 4 · Mode reward → Combined source rate (adds to)
The mode reward was the third addition, and by this point the combined rate was already well above what any single review had checked.
- Combined source rate → Unchanged sink rate (is compared against)
Only once all three sources are summed and compared against the sink rate does the imbalance become visible.
Compare a real fix with the two false fixes
Approach What it changes Does it last Risk Price patchRaises displayed cost, not the underlying rates. Only the displayed cost of items, not the source or sink rate. No. The combined source rate keeps climbing, so the same imbalance returns at a new, higher price. Players notice repeated price increases and read it as everything getting more expensive, not as a rate problem being hidden. Currency purgeResets or reduces player balances directly. Player balances are reset or reduced directly. No. Without changing the source and sink rates, the same imbalance regrows from the new lower balance. Players who saved through legitimate play lose that balance and read the reset as a broken promise. Rate correctionTrims a source rate or adds a legitimate sink. The actual source rate, by trimming a source, or the sink rate, by adding a legitimate new sink. Yes, as long as the combined rate is rechecked the next time any source is added. Requires reviewing every new source against the current combined rate, not just the rate at launch. Diagnose a quarter of source creep
Over six months, three separate teams each added one small source, an event, a daily bonus, and a new mode reward, and each was approved because it looked small next to the sink rate. Now the pool is flooding. What went wrong in the review process, and what is not a real fix?
Expected reasoning
Each addition was reviewed in isolation against the original sink rate instead of against the combined rate every prior addition had already created, so the sources quietly compounded into inflation. Raising displayed prices or purging player balances would not be real fixes, since neither changes the combined source rate or the sink rate that caused the imbalance; the actual fix is to trim a source rate or add a legitimate new sink and recheck the combined rate going forward.